From The Smyrna Times,
July 25, 1935
Japanese beetles threaten corn crop
Japanese beetles are more numerous in Smyrna and Clayton and other places down the state this summer than have ever been known, according to W.E. Cranston, of Dover, who is in charge of the Federal and State quarantine against these pests. He said the beetles have begun to attack growing corn, and farmers are likely to sustain a heavy loss in this crop as a result.
His department has set out numerous traps for the pests and over at Clayton alone 100,000 have been caught to date, whereas for all of last season only 91,000 were trapped at that place.
They have also been located at Smyrna, Middletown, and Dover and at St. Georges the number captured is far in excess of last year’s totals.
Oil drilling tests continue in Sussex
Convinced after drilling 3,200 feet and striking a bed of granite that they passed by the rim of an oil pool when they reached 2,600 feet, George Spohn, president of the concern that is drilling for “black gold” on the apple farm of U.S. Senator John G. Townsend Jr., near Bridgeville, is preparing to drill in another location 500 feet west of the present site. If this fails, he said, the whole project will be abandoned.
This announcement was made by Mr. Spohn, whose headquarters are located in Milford, after several wild rumors became general all over the state pertaining to the drilling operations.
Mr. Spohn said that the oil flow which he struck at 2,600 feet a few months ago was not worthy of operation, in that its flow was only about three barrels a day. Mr. Spohn said that it would take at least a 25 barrel per day well to pay.
Work relief programs bolstered by federal government
Unemployed and needy in Kent and Sussex counties will not be neglected in the work relief program to be conducted under his direction, said Bankson T. Holcomb, state director of the Works Progress Administration, who recently returned from a conference in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Holcomb said approximately 2,500 persons had been receiving relief in one way or another in Kent and Sussex counties during the past year.
He said a number of projects are now awaiting certification by the proper officer at Washington following which work will be started and the beginning of reducing the relief rolls in Delaware will be at hand.
